Fiction Master Class: A 9-Week Workshop

This class—which will be capped at just 9 participants—will offer advanced fiction writers the opportunity to submit two new pieces of fiction and one revision and to receive rigorous, supportive, and constructive feedback on all three.

“Revision, which is often overlooked in the writing process, will be a main component of the class,” says instructor Lori Ostlund. “That is, feedback will not just go into a drawer for later.” Along these lines, the class will be structured as follows: during the first six weeks, each participant will submit two pieces for workshopping. This could include novel chapters/excerpts or complete or excerpted stories. After a one-week break (during which participants will work on revising one of their two submissions), we will spend the last three weeks workshopping these revisions. Though workshops will be at the core of the class, the class might also involve short readings and mini-craft sessions.

This workshop is for writers who have completed fiction classes at The Writing Salon or elsewhere. Participants are encouraged to have one or both submissions completed prior to the start of the class as the weekly reading-and-critiquing component will be rigorous. Since each class will involve reading and discussing three submissions, each submission will be capped at 2,500 words (around 10 double-spaced pages), though participants working on a long short story would have the option to bundle their first two submissions into one 5,000-word chunk. (Prior permission needed as this would involve changes to the workshop schedule.)

Lori says, “Participants will leave with extensive feedback on submitted work and a better sense of their own revision process, achieved both through discussing the work of others and by grappling with feedback.”